Beginning Feb. 1st each year, a seasonal wildlife closure will be in effect on Redgarden Wall in Eldorado Canyon State Park to protect nesting and roosting sites of the canyonís falcons. The closure is in effect through July 31st unless lifted early due to early fledging or inactivity.

Description

This is my favorite 5.8 route in the canyon. It is long, sustained, and has a variety of types of climbing. The route is broken into two sections both three pitches long, one below the Upper Ramp, and one above. You can rap off after the first three pitches. For the second pitch, you can take the rover variation on the left side of the block, this is a lot easier than it looks, but still solid 5.9. The other variation is the Ruper crack, an offwidth that requires a #4 Camalot at the beginning. (You can pro in cracks on the side of the offwidth higher in the pitch) The other pitch of note is the last pitch. This is has one short .8- move on it, but the protection sucks. There are two pins protecting the move, one wiggles around when you touch it, the other would not hold a fall. You can back them up with some weird TCU placements, all the same be solid at the grade. The top of the last pitch is runout 5.5, and if it has rained or snowed lately will definitely be wet. Every pitch on this route is awesome and classic.

Protection

Bring a standard rack, a #4 Camalot is mandatory for the Ruper crack.

Getting There

This is added to the original contribution by an administrator, since there was a complaint about no information as to how to get to the start.

Find the start to the route by approaching the Roof Routes area. You park at the lower parking lot, hike the trail around the W side of The Whale's Tail. Follow the trail across the concrete pad, take the switchbacks, take the right fork. When you get to the rock, you head left, past the Roof Routes. Here, you will find a Flatiron like slab requiring 4th class to low 5th class climbing for 200+ ft. Use a rope, if you might fall. Ascend this to the top of this slab. Find a large flattish area. Gear up, rope up. Two options: 1) you go up a short RFD, then traverse right, catch a ramp up and belay. 2) traverse R, go up to the same ramp, follow it & belay. To find the R-facing Ruper crack, you must traverse/downclimb R about 30 ft.

To get to the base: Hike up to the Lower Ramp, which is the long, low-angled ramp that rises just beyond the long, low rising roof. This area is a bit uphill from Cest la Vie: follow the streamside trail, then cut uphill on another trail shortly after passing the huge concrete slab below the Whales Tail. Or go round the corner to the west and uphill from Cest la Vie. Scramble (or belay) up the ramp to trees and blocks at its top, and then go right to a level spot below a clean, short corner with a good crack in the back.

Alternate approach: Hike the Streamside trail around to the West Face of Redgarden and follow the climbers access trail up some switchbacks. Stop just before a clean arete (Superarete), with the route Superslab and Vertigo towering overhead and slightly uphill. Directly above, and right of Superarete is a broken area with trees on top. Scramble into a scoop and head sharply up right to gain the top of the Lower Ramp, then head left to the start.

P1 - Climb the short corner, nice 5.8, and head up and right to an alcove below a large overhanging corner. Avoid the 5.8 if desired by climbing over an overlap to the right at about 5.6 or so. The large corner is the Rover variation; belay here if doing it. If doing the Ruper crack, continue up right to a platform and belay there or further right on a sloping ledge directly beneath the wide crack.

P2 - Rover: climb the fantastic corner and head right at its top to a 2-bolt belay. Ruper: climb the wide 5.8 crack and when it ends, head left (also 5.8) on flakes to the same belay.

P3 - Traverse right along a loose ledge, climb up right through short, clean corners, into another shallow corner. Go straight up to a tree and the Upper Ramp, passing a VERY loose flake (which appears solid) just before the belay. Great exposure and thought-provoking climbing. Traverse across the upper ramp to the west end of a large cave (4th/5th class).

Hike down past the cave to the first continuous corner system (left-facing). Climb that for two more excllent, vertical 5.7-5.8 pitches (or one 200 footer) to a large roof above a rotten band. Though there is a fixed pin belay right at the roof, I recommend belaying 10-15 ft. lower on much higher quality rock.

The last pitch traverses around the roof by going up left through the rotten band (with rotten pro) at 5.8, then up easier, though somewhat runout rock to a tree at the top.

You can also do a nicer first pitch by taking the clean right facing dihedral with thin crack about 15 feet left of the original start. This is the Art's Spar start and is 5.8..... Did this yesterday as well as the Rover variation 2nd pitch...AWESOME overhanging crack in a large left facing and angling dihedral...., SOLID 5.9 with no rests.

Quick note of caution - as of Memorial Day 2001, one of the two ancient pins just below the roof at the top of pitch five is no more. I think the right one is sheared off now. Definitely look for that area of good rock 10-15 below the roof that Charles mentioned. If you have a 60m rope and manage it well pulling around the roof, it's possible to combine P5 and P6 and make it to the top (possible, but not recommended - we had about 2 feet of rope left).

Ruper is also my favorite 5.8 in the park. If one has all day, i would suggest avoiding the slab approach up from the roof routes by going around the corner and doing two 5.8 pitches of The Slippery Spoon (5.8) to the top of the ramp, and starting the route with the art's spar 5.8 start. This makes for eight great pitches of varied 5.8 climbing: clean dihedral, squeeze chimney, finger crack, offwidth, overhangs, face climbing, and exposure! This is the only 8 pitch route i've found in the park, and every pitch is 5.8!

Glad you enjoyed this route. It is indeed some great climbing. The Rover dihedral is lots of fun. Of course, you didn't really climb Ruper. I mean, you can't say you climbed Ruper without doing the Ruper Crack! The traverse is cool, airy, and intimidating, but the meat of the route is the Ruper Crack. Indeed one large piece is nice to have for that crack. It all depends on how bold you are. It is indeed nice to climb with a small rack. The size of the crack seems to be in indirect proportion to the size of your...uh...risk tolerance.

Right after the Ruper "traverse", when you start going up again there is a decent sized flake that you can get a perfect fistjam in. DON'T USE IT !!! I put my fist in it and the whole thing moved out, that was freaky!!!!!

Led P1-3 of this yesterday for the 1st time. If you like sustained .8 crack climbing with exposure, its hard to beat. Suggest bringing two #4 cams for P2 if you have them. Thought P3 upper section to be sandbagged at 5. Great route and challenging for the grade.

I finally got around to climbing the first three pitches of this route. What an awesome climb it is indeed.

After the climb I came back home and thumbed through Pat Ament's "High Over Boulder" to see what he had to say about the climb.

To my surprise on page 11, there is a picture of Kor (FA) just after completing the traverse. Upon closer inspection I noticed he has NO gear in place through the whole traverse! His first visible piece is on the 5.5 crack that marks the end of it.

Now, those who have done this traverse know how extremely exposed it can get out there...

Do a 150' pitch to an alcove about 20' below the roof. As I remember it, I made a move out and left then back up and right around a bulge to gain this ledge.

From here, go 164' to the tree at the top. Be judicious in your runners, especially at the start of the roof and any pieces after the rotten band (My rope was about dead vertical from last piece over the entire 5.6 section).

The roof, while loose, is not that scary protection-wise. I got a 00 friend in a great placement by the first pin. Just left of pins 2 and 3, there's a great yellow alien placement.

If I recall, I think pitch 4 is called 's' by Rossiter. I'd disagree with this; 20 feet up you can get a bomber #6 stopper in above you, and then it's four moves to a great stance where you can get a solid yellow Alien in a slot. I thought this section was the only possible 's' area, and even then it seemed very safe.

Upper Ruper is incredible! It's very steep, yet a very forgiving weakness in the wall. Do it.

Hey Warren. Read on and see what Ament says about Layton and his 40' whipper on crappy rope. He just brushed it off and finished Rogue's Arete (10a) at Overhang Rock. Yeah, we all might say that Kor was a VERY talented and dedicated climber for use to emulate (note the knee boots on page 11 of "High Over Boulder...").

A little gear beta for the wide crack on P2. At the base of the crack, the #4 fits beautifully. Looking up, I thought I might need it later so I back cleaned it after getting a slightly higher piece. I didn't place it again on the pitch. You could leave it at the bottom, but it might make for some bad rope drag. The OW opens up to a squueze chimney about half-way up. Right before opening up, there is a perfect 3.5 Camalot. With that in place you can lie-back the squeeze section (perhaps a litle spicey for the 5.8 leader) rather than grovel up it. Other than that, a standard rack works fine. I'm sure you could do it without the 3.5 or the 4, but it would take a little more creativity and run-out.

Don't miss the upper half of this route, it is superb! The beta for linking pitches 4 and 5 was much appreciated. Put together, it was a fantastic pitch of climbing. Definitely stop 20' short of the roof to belay. The rock at the roof sucks.

Tracy: No, you can rap down with one rope west of Vertigo, the "Vertigo Rap Route". It is best to have a 60m for this, from the top of Ruper follow an exposed ledge west up through a notch, then down to the first rap anchor. Look at the first comment under the Yellow Spur for more info or do a search on this site for "Vertigo Raps". This is the best way to get down from anywhere in this area, IMHO.

What I call "The Vertigo Raps" really starts with a rappel down the Upper Ramp route "Chockstone Chimney" (this route is in Rossiter's Guide but not yet on this web site). One 60m rope works perfectly for this rap. I have done it with a single 50m, but you have to be real careful to go off rappel before the rope ends and downclimb the final 15'. From here you scramble west from the very end of the Upper Ramp, down a short crack to a tree with slings (just west of the final pitch of Vertigo). Two single rope raps get you down from here.

I must comment about this route....I thought I was a solid 5.8 leader until this! I just struggled up P2 on follow...I found the feet to be quite polished and the lay back to require brute strength. Then I took a leader fall on P4. I was able to find protection all the way (including the runout section) and it is a good thing. I just popped off since it was so vertical and I was tired by the time I got there.

As everyone says, the route has a bit of everything and it is tiring. For those of you that have led the entire climb...kudos. I think it takes a lot of technique and experience. I would say, save this one until you are comfortably leading 5.9's or else just call me a feable weak female.

Having said all of the above...it was my BEST DAY of rock climbing ever. The last three pitches are pure joy.

At last, on this trip we found the vertigo rap line and it is the BEST way off. Three raps on a 60M and your on the ground near the Yellow Spur start.

There are many ways to descend from Upper and Lower Ruper. Here is a link my personal notes describing in detail the rappels down Chockstone Chimney, Song of the Dodo (Vertigo), Predator (Rosy Crucifixion), T2, Redguard, etc. _A HREF='http://www.dwebsoft.com/Will/Climbing/RappelRuper.html'_dwebsoft.com/Will/Climbing/Rap...

The picture of Tonya Riggs below serves as an excellent example of why you need to either use quite long runners or preferably double ropes on this route.Of course this applies to almost any Eldo route because of the angles of the natural features. I'm not surprised you got tired, Tonya, it looks like you were already experiencing significant rope drag half way through P4.

Personally I don't understand why so may people continue to use single ropes in Eldo when the routes and gear placements are so often not in a straight, vertical line. There is not a single pitch on Ruper that is not significantly easier to manage and safer to climb with doubles than with a single. (An exception might be P2 if you belay from the bottom of the crack). I'd rather climb most Eldo routes with two 10 mm ropes and have the extra weight than mess around with ridiculously long slings and/or the potential for zippering my placements. Doubles aren't just for pasty-white Brits with hangovers!

Honestly, felt more like 5.7--but, this was a lot of fun!!! The first pitch...? I guess we missed it. We just cruised up some ramp to this corner with extreme exposure and ended up at the Ruper Crack. The crack itself was fairly polished and my cams just kept walking back--but, definately earns the 'three-star' rating!

Agree with Edward's comments about double ropes, but make it 8.5mm instead of 10mm and you have the perfect set up for Eldo or any multi-pitch climb. And, by the way, Ruper is indeed the best 5.8 in Eldo, closely followed by Gambit in my book. Going up the Rover dihedral on P2 makes a better, albeit slightly more difficult route.

No worries about that very loose flake described in one of the comments above on the third pitch. My second rode it off the wall yesterday morning. I thumped it as I went by. It sounded real hollow. He gave it a good tug and both he and the flake came off the wall. The rock exploded on the lower ramp. I could see fragments ripping into the trees around it. This thing was a killer-around 150 lbs at least. Everybody was lucky on this one. It was pretty early; around 0800 so there weren't too many folks around yet.We were able to finish the route-whew! I hate it when that happens. When we came down two climbers were in the middle of the ramp...

I did this route for the first time on Sunday. The day started out really foggy but ended very sunny and hot. I got stuck behind a party on the first three pitches so I broke these up the same way they did in to the three that Rossiter suggests. I could really see doiong these three on one or two pitches. Definately two as I ran the first pitch to the base of the crack and slung a flake and belayed at the base. With this stance it would be easy to run the second all the way to the top of lower Ruper. As long as you use some long runners on the traverse. We did the Upper in two pitches thank to the beta on this site. Awesome climbing for two pitches. I stopped the belay abotu twenty feet under the roof. The pins under the roof are horrible, I could probably pull them out with my hands. There are a couple of loose blocks that groaned when I pulled on them. BEWARE: Some of this stuff is going to break off soon. It is probably best to not hang out at the base of the climb when someone is negotiating this roof. One you pull over th roof I got in a great .75 cam (green).

The easiest approach is via the trail to the West Face of Redgarden Wall. Take this just past the turnoff to the Kloof Alcove. There's a good flat spot to gear up. The tree below the start of Ruper is directly above you. Climb up to the shelf below Suparete, then scramble right and up following the path of least resistance. Cut back left across the slab to the start of the climb.

The best start is in the black-washed corner. It's hard right from the start; get good pro. Aliens and small TCUs work well. After the crux, step right and continue up the corner all the way to its top, then traverse straight right to the belay. Don't traverse right too low or you'll miss some good climbing. I like to belay right on the arete at a small pillar.

A #3.5 Camalot is fine for protecting the start of the second pitch; no need for the #4. About 6 feet above this is a good placement for a finger-sized cam; there was a fixed piece here on 10/29/03.

On the Ruper traverse, think "good hands and poor feet". Don't step up on the ledge at the start of the traverse or you'll be too high.

Use long runners on the fourth pitch (1st pitch of upper Ruper) to minimize rope drag.

I like to do upper Ruper in three pitches, and set the last belay right under the roof. The belay pin can be backed up with small to medium cams. This spot provides a good photo angle of the leader at the last-pitch crux.

After the crux on the last pitch, head straight up the corner to a roof instead of traversing left on the ramp for more fun climbing. The final headwall to the top is runout 5.5. You can also climb a little farther left and get pro in a small corner system.

The easiest descent is via the Chockstone Chimney and Vertigo rappels; see George Bell's and Will Clopton's comments for details. Bring a 60m rope for the Chockstone Chimney rap. Take the Vertigo ledge uphill until it intersects the West Face trail, then amble down to your packs.

Downclimbing - yes, I've always thought that would be an interesting way to lead an entire climb - from the top to the bottom. The leader is now the second and the second is now the leader from a risk perspective. Probably a more interesting alternative to spice up easier climbs than speed climbing them. But, it would be tough on a busy day...

As of 3/9/04 each of the first three pitches has fixed gear (cams). On P1 its 2/3 up the crack, and been there for many years. The piece on P2 is newer and 15' up the crack near where a #4 placement might go. On P3, high in an upper corner, just before the Ruper traverse, is an orange TCU.

Also, on P6 the lower of the two pins is still there and still moves, doubt it would hold a fall. The upper pin is in better condition and can be backed up with a green Alien in a seam just to its left.

We did upper Ruper in two pitches, we linked 4 and 5 into a 190ft pitch, really cool to be on lead that long. I used a ton of long runners, got to the roof and got to belay in the shade. My partner then got to climb the whole upper Ruper in one shot.

Got to lead the Ruper traverse on the way to the upper ramp today. Damn left leg started a sewing machine right after the traverse. Annoying as hell! In any case, there are about four fixed, manky cams just before the committing move, three in one place. You can see a chalked up, vertical handhold at about eye level. Reach out with your right hand and extend your right foot to the good foothold just beyond. You should be able to shift your weight onto the foot and be right at a shallow 1.5 inch crack about 7 inches long. I plugged a cam in this cruddy spot and made the mistake of going further right at that level. Don't. It's obvious that a crack now goes directly above you. Better gear placements await you up there, so move on up.

Did this with the Rover variation today. Solid .9+ if you do the Rover variation in 1 pitch. Did the whole route in 4 pitches with minimal rope drag. Highly recommend it, nice if you want a finger crack and not an offwidth.

Did upper and lower Ruper today, ultra fun climb!!!!!! The gear sucks through the upper roof, I found lots of pieces to slot, but the rock is so bad I doubt they would have held a fall. The last piton looked ok, my advice, just go for it. As the roof ends you can put in a 1 or 2 Camalot that's solid, you just have to hold on till then. FYI, there was plenty of rope left for the last pitch, so you don't have to set up your belay right under the upper roof. It's better to belay 20-30 feet below the upper roof. I only had 20-30 feet of runout at the top and the climbing is easy (5.5-5.6ish). We also did upper Ruper in two pitches with a 60m rope which I recommend. Don't miss this one!!!!

Climbed Lower and Upper Ruper yesterday. Fantastic route! Ran P4&5 together as everyone mentions and found that to be one of the best pitches of trad leading I have ever done. It makes for one long pitch with a little bit of everything (face, vertical crack, lieback). Great call! Even better, I talked my partner (a strong sport leader) into attempting his first trad lead on P1. After cruising that, he felt so good that he volunteered for P3. After cruising the traverse, and after I linked 4/5, he offered to take P6. As expected, he cruised the roof and runout section to the top without a second thought. I was quite impressed. The exposure on P3 and P6 match just about anything you can get in the park and he sent both like a pro.

As a side note: we were unable to retrieve the standard #4 in the Ruper crack. I placed it about 10 feet up from the belay, and during the pitch it walked its way back into the crack, and closed itself up such that my second couldn't get it out. He worked on it for over 5 minutes, and even took a nut tool to it, but to no avail. With a growing line of parties at the bottom of P1, we decided that we must move on and call it a loss. If anyone was able to extract the cam, and reads this, it would be much appreciated if you could return it.

One of the pins on upper rupper in the rotten band is now gone. I think it was the middle pin. My second gently wiggled it out, and it now resides in my back seat. I hope that nobody has clipped this thing in the last ten years, as it wouldn't have held any weight and is actually S-shaped. Still better than some of the fixed pins I have seen in Eldo.

A couple of comments on this route related to other input above; It seemed very contrived to set a belay at the bottom of the Ruper crack as it is semi-hanging unless you carry gear bigger than what is needed to really protect the climbing. The route itself has a lot of good and sustained climbing but there are some logistics that take away from the experience, such as the 3rd class approach (not bad but tedious), and the 3rd class traverse and down climb to the beginning of the standard 4th pitch. I lengthened the 4th pitch to almost 200 feet and ended in a semi hanging belay about 15 feet below the roof traverse and then easily finished the climb with probably 30 feet of rope left over with a 5th pitch. The beta on the rappels is excellent, just wander from the tree at the top of the climb, avoiding the exposed edge and then when you are above the gully at the top of the ramp you can scramble easily back down a east trending ramp and then find the bolts which leads down to the ledge behind Vertigo. Two more raps and you're down. Much better than the East Slabs descent.

P1&2: Needing to make a pass at the start (Ruper is busy), we zig-zagged right, left, right on easy ledges (skipped pro), then up Ruper Crack to the belay bolts with rope to spare. The Crack is great, and I think is the exact same difficulty as the Bastille Crack (which is rated 7). I used an OK #3 at the bottom (too lazy to carry a #4). P3: Dang, that traverse is remarkable! P4: This seemed like the crux today, wandering up continuously steep rock the first 50' looking for placements. P5: More really nice continuously steep climbing with surprisingly large and juggy holds. P6: We thought the "rotten band" was pretty good! Except for the Crack, which sews up with big cams, the team should be solid at the grade, and this traverse is no different. The belay at the start was in the shade while sitting down with good view. We might try the upper section in 2 pitches next time, but the traditional 3 seemed fine.

Pins on the upper traverse... today there were three, and it looks like the second one (an angle) is pretty recent + solid. You can get a smallish cam near the third pin, but that seems to be the only decent placement, until you make it above the traverse. Ruper is the definition of classic.

Great route, with varied climbing. Ron Olsen's beta (from comment above) on where to start off the West Face trail is excellent, and when combined with the Chockstone/Vertigo raps works perfectly,

We did the Rover dihedral to pass a party. Bummed to miss out on the Ruper Crack, but the dihedral is super fun and protects very well. We linked P1 of Ruper into the Rover dihedral and belayed at the bolts.

We did Upper Ruper in two pitches. We belayed at sloping stance about 20 feet below the roof. The belay at the corner of the roof looked really bad gear wise with bad rock, so use caution if you decide to belay there. Our belay at the sloping stance had bomber gear and was super comfy. There is a ledge about 30' below the sloping stance, and I thought about belaying there, but the gear didn't look that great so I kept going - and was glad I did. 50m pitch or so.

The pins+rock on the traverse below the roof are pretty sketchy, but the climbing is straight forward enough. A fair bit of rope drag topping out in one pitch, but manageable.

Head up and climber's left to a big gully and descend about 70' to find the Chockstone Chimney raps.

Well, I'll beat this climb to death a little more. #11 hex (does anyone but me carry them???) fits nicely in quite a few spots, most noticeably the OW pitch 2 crack since I'm too cheap to buy a #4 Camalot. Make sure you make the traverse around the right to the base of the ow before setting up your first anchor; otherwise rope drag sucks. Upper Ruper is incredible (DO IT) and can be done in two rope stretching pitches. I didn't really get any substantial pro in on the traverse to the left under the roof and was ok.

FYI: The chockstone rap leaves you looking up hill at a small slab to the left of a good sized pine tree. The vertigo rap rings are just on the other side of the slabs arete right in the middle. Get to the rings from the lower left side of this arete. Another set of chains follows. Best way off the wall IMO allowing you to hit dirt in two single rope raps from the upper ramp.

So far, my all time favorite climb! Nothing but pure fun the whole way (yes don't skip the upper section). My favorite pitches were 4 and 5. Didn't find the belay under the roof on pitch 5 to be that bad, but there is definitely loose rock around. Found some bomber cam placements to back up the pin. I guess I must have missed the spot people are referring to here below the roof.

One more alternative descent just in case you get confused like we did. We scrambled up n.w through the obvious rock filled gully to the top of the Dirty Deed rap between Yellow Spur and Swanson's arete. Did the first two raps (bolts then a tree, 60 meter rope) and then traversed over on the red ledge to the top of the West Chimney. Two more raps from chains deposits you at the base of Rewritten in case Ruper didn't give you enough excitement for the day!

But I'll stop short of giving it three stars because of the contrivance factor. First, there's the weird, ramp up to the start. (Someone said start low on "The Slippery Spoon," but I couldn't find that, either in the Falcon or on this site...) Then there's the hard right, boot scoot traverse you have to make just to acquire the Ruper crack, instead of taking what seems the natural, Rover line up. Then another traverse, the big 'un. Then that BS ramp weirdness that separates the lower half from the upper. (Big Hint: If you have to change into hiking shoes just to find the rest of the climb, it isn't a "classic.") Finally, a crux "roof" section that isn't really a roof sequence at all, since you cheat it by traversing the face under it. Finally, finally, the whack walk way around the backside, then up again to the beginning of the ramp just to retrieve gear?

In my book, I'm thinkin' this isn't all that "classic." Bastille. Yellow Spur. THOSE are Canyon classics. North Chimney of Castleton, now THAT is a classic. Ruper, for me, was just a fine, fun day in Eldo. A "good," two-star climb. But not that much more.

DON'T GET ME WRONG. Each individual pitch was delicious, and as a new-to-Eldo climber, this is fast becoming somma my favorite granite on the planet. But lacing the whole of Ruper together was, let's admit it, a bit artificial. Itís no Anthill Direct.

So why do I care? Because I'm allergic to how softly some stars are tossed, as though every good climb was an instant, all-time classic. This pollutes the ratings pool; and I was expecting far more from this supposed 4-banger. Happy I did it, yes. But likely I will be happy to look for something more before roping up on Ruper again.

LEADERíS NOTES: Forget the hype of how hard Ruper is. If youíre comfortably sending trad 9s, then you can do the entire 5/6 pitches in your approach shoes. If youíre great on 8, just bring some Powergels and youíll escape. Ruper is steep, sure. But theyíre approximately one or two or a gabillion quality, no-hands rests along the way. Don't tie the Subaru to your harness, and youíll do fine.

And donít fret about the roof. Sure, the protection is shit, but youíre on your feet for all but three marvelous monkey moves, all well chalked.

Lastly, get on it early and beat the heat; belaying below the P6 roof is like baking your face.

What a great climb. Thanks to the Bolder Boulder for letting us have it all to ourselves! I plugged in my #4 once and probably could have left it in the car.

Linking P4 and 5 was the highlight for me. I thought the pro was pretty good all the way up. I was also able to stuff a #0.4 beside the manky pin on P6, which made the move "feel" easier. The powergel beta is right on...the sun is a bear on the upper three pitches.

FYI, we left a gray nut on P1 (partner forgot his nut tool). Should pop right out if you tap it from below.

So, I'm a total wuss. I read the descriptions here and saw so many people saying you NEED a #4 or #5 cam for the Ruper crack... some said you need 2. And I'm the biggest coward ever, so not knowing what to expect, I lugged one #4 and one #5 up there along with a large hex. At the top of the extremely well protected crack, I still had all the big pro dangling from my harness. In fact, I did not place anything larger than a #1 on the Ruper crack pitch! It took a couple of 0.4 and 0.5 cams, along with many nuts. Save yourself the hassle and do not waste energy lugging the big stuff up there.

The only place you might want a #4 (new style C4) is at the very beginning of the crack where you can walk it up until you place smaller pro higher up... even then you probably want to take out the #4 to reduce rope drag. The #5 is completely pointless.

Gear for lower Ruper. 1 60m rope. No gear needed for belay stations (can sling natural protection or clip bolts on the 2nd), 8-10 2'sling draws, (2) 48" runners, (1) cordellete, one set of small to medium wires, double rack of cams through #1, then only (1) #2, #3, #4. Leave the #3.5 at home (never used). Only used the #2 once one the first pitch. Could probably do without #2 as well.

I just climbed this today. Amazing climb. One of the best 5.8s I've ever done. I disagree with the "mandatory" #4. I did this climb without one and felt fine. It is possible to get a good #3 low in the "Ruper Crack" then many good placements for smaller gear begin about 8 feet higher. Even if you don't have the big stuff, this climb is do-able and totally worth doing.

I get the unfortunate honor of ending the debate regarding the upper pin on the roof pitch. It will hold a fall. How do I know? Because it did. Why? Because I suck. I followed my partners advice too literally. He suggested I stay low and left and avoid the sucker holds chalked up higher beneath the roof. So I tried to balance out on the polished rock to the left above that bent up manky pin. Didn't work out so well for me! Scariest thing I've ever fallen onto.

As of today, John and I noticed a loose rock the size of a of an espresso machine just at the end of the crux move on the last traverse pitch (pitch 6). We marked it with a white X, but obviously it will not last forever. So, please all be careful!!

Got kind of psyched out before leading the roof traverse only to find.... it's pretty easy! By staying low, you can basically walk across the ramp below with small but good hands. A pin and okay cam will be at your chest for the crux. While the pro is generally pretty bad for the stretch under the roof, I found the climbing to be only around 5.7 or so.

Overall an amazing route and possibly the best 5.8 in the park. We did the Rover variation for P2, and while a little polished, we both thought it was a great pitch! And don't stop after P3, some of the best climbing lies above!

Despite what other comments say, the Lower Ramp approach is definitely the fastest, most direct approach. The west face approach involves significantly more hiking and the scramble to get to the base of Ruper is pretty dicey without a rope (and if you rope up, you'll waste time on junk climbing).

Rack up at the car, hike 10 min to the base of the Lower Ramp, put on your climbing shoes, and enjoy the 5.0 warmup. When you get to the top of the ramp, you're at the base of Ruper and you're ready to climb.

The pitches are super short, so linking them adds to the climb. Linking 4/5 is a no brainer, and you can also link 1/2 or 2/3 if you're extra careful about rope drag. It would be a fun challenge to link 1/2/3 as mentioned in other comments.

Rack is a set of nuts and single cams to #4. Maybe doubles of 0.5 and 0.75 if you want to sew it up. The #4 isn't mandatory but will make you feel better on P2.

Climbed this route before work this morning. Three words: fun, fun, fun. We did the lower section as two pitches (P1+P2, P3). This works well if you use long slings to avoid rope drag as you go around the corner. We also did upper Ruper as two pitches with a belay on a sloping stance about 30 feet below the roof (P4+P5, P6). This worked out so well it seems the natural way to do it.

The 150-foot combined P4+P5 has got to be one of the great 5.6 pitches in Eldo or anywhere. Consistent, steep, interesting, and festooned with wonderful holds. I believe if that pitch were easier to reach, it would be the most popular pitch in the canyon.

This is a really nice climb and frankly the 5.8+ rating seems a little soft. The climb is generally well protected except the beginning of the 4th pitch (which is easy) and the 6th pitch with the traverse (the difficulty can be minimized by focusing on the good feet, instead of the "good" looking chalked hands up high). I think it's important to note that the piton more so flexes than wiggles. I'm still not overly interested in taking a fall onto it, however.